Lords and Ladies

As Spring arrives I'm starting to see these curious coiled leaves pushing up through the soil. They're Arum Lilies (Arum maculatum), also known as Cuckoo Pint or Lords and Ladies.

Once the leaves are fully open they became spear-like with backward-pointed barbs where they join the stem. I point this out because they do look similar-ish to edible Field Sorrel leaves. However Arum Lilies are poisonous and should never be eaten. 

The leaves of Sorrel and Arum Lily are actually quite different - I point out the differences in this blogpost from last August - but you still need to be careful. 

However, identification will become much easier when the Lily plant puts out its flowers in May-July. Firstly, the leaves get way too big to be confused with Sorrel. And then the flower appears, consisting of a poker-shaped structure called a spadix, which is partially enclosed in a pale green spathe or leaf-like hood. Above the male flowers is a ring of hairs forming an insect trap. Insects are attracted to the spadix by its faecal odour and a temperature up to 15°C warmer than the ambient temperature. The insects are trapped beneath the ring of hairs and are dusted with pollen by the male flowers before escaping and carrying the pollen to the spadices of other plants, where they pollinate the female flowers. The spadix is usually purple but can occasionally be yellow.

And then, in late Summer, the plants put out clusters of bright red berries on stalks.

I can think of few wild plants that have such a range of folk names as the Arum Lily. They include Snakeshead, Adder's Root, Devils and Angels, Cows and Bulls, Adam and Eve, Bobbins, Naked girls and Boys, Starch-Root, Wake Robin, Friar's Cowl, Sonsie-give-us-your-hand, Jack in the Pulpit, and Cheese and Toast. 

If some of these names seem suggestive, that's because of the flower's resemblance to both male and female genitalia. 

All of which leads to my favourite name for the plant - the Willy Lily. 

I'm so childish at times.